Snares themselves are far from ideal. If they are properly set a good
many rabbits may run into them at speed and kill themselves almost
instantly; but the majority of the rabbits caught will not be thus
neatly despatched. Half a night's catch may be found dead in the
morning, some having been hanged outright, others strangled more or
less slowly; but half will be found still living, if nearly dead. This
slow strangulation is prevented when a knot is made in the snare, or
some sort of ring or washer is attached, so that the wire cannot be
drawn tight enough to prevent the rabbit breathing; but no rabbit then
is killed swiftly and mercifully by the wire, and on other accounts the
plan could not prove a real solution to the problem. There is still
another way of setting a snare which prevents a slow death: a bender--a
springy stick of hazel or ash about four feet long--is fixed firmly in
the ground: the snare is made fast to the thin top of it, the stick is
bent down, and the top lightly inserted at the edge of the rabbit's
run. When a rabbit then rushes into the snare, the bender flies up,
swinging him off his feet, so that he is killed quickly. This is a
poacher's dodge to prevent rabbits from squealing when caught: it can
be practised only in an open place. There are many situations where the
steel trap is the only means of dealing with the rabbit pest, and must
be used perforce until a substitute is found--unless man is to give way
to rabbits. We do not think that any gamekeeper uses steel traps for
rabbits unnecessarily.
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